In the 20-plus years since I discovered Dpaint on a friend's Amiga 500 I've progressed through various incarnations of many design software packages. I'm not an Adobe snob...I use their CS5 suite, but not exclusively. I'll use anything to get the job done; CorelDraw, Xara, an appropriate Android app', MS Paint if necessary. Well...you don't judge the quality of your garage's work by their preferred brand of spanners :)

My repertoire has expanded to include web design, logo design, corporate branding, design for print, t-shirt design, CD design, basic video editing and a bit of Flash. I've had directorial experience, been the company first-aider and Health and Safety Nazi and have spent countless hours doing the donkey work as well as working on some frighteningly large design projects (as well as some rather quite small ones) and have been Nick Harper's designer since his 2004 album Bloodsongs. I also worked on five websites for German industrial music pioneers Einstürzende Neubauten.

It's not all design work though. Since my school days I've played guitar in many bands, ranging from a Goth band in 80s Swindon through cover bands, serious bands gigging our own material around the country, a 13-piece ska band, acoustic duos and numerous guest appearances. I currently own "too many" guitars and a rather marvellous Jerry Jones electric sitar.

Guitars aside, my life revolves around my family, mental springer spaniel Farley and 8 rescue cats. After 30 years of being vegetarian I went vegan in March 2010 and have never felt better, both physically and psychologically. A lifelong Stranglers fan, my music collection ranges from Nick Drake and John Lee Hooker to Rammstein and Half Man Half Biscuit (<<< go on, click it :)...with a vast ecelctic array of bands and artists inbetween!

Bernard Cornwell, H.G Wells, Philip Kerr, George MacDonald Fraser and John Wyndham grace the bookshelves and barely a week goes by where I don't watch at least one episode of The Sweeney. I give regular donations to The RSPCA, The Blue Cross, IFAW and The WSPA and am a paid-up, card-carrying member of PeTA.

In September 2011 I was made redundant (again!) and decided to go freelance. If you like what you see here and think I might be of some help to you, give me a shout :)

I am, currently, Alec Carmichael. My friends call me Fal.